It has not been vintage Roger Federer at any point during this week’s Gerry Weber Open, but he is still through to the final and one win away from a 10th title in Halle. Federer was once again less than his best on semifinal Saturday but had enough to survive another competitive match, defeating Denis Kulda 7-6(1), 7-5.
The top seed began his Halle campaign by getting the best of Aljaz Bedene 6-3, 6-4, but he has not enjoyed a routine outing since. Federer saved a pair match points during a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(7) win over Benoit Paire before edging Matthew Ebden 7-6(2), 7-5 in the quarterfinals. A similar story transpired with Kudla, who was broken early in the first set but broke back immediately and went toe-to-toe with Federer the entire rest of the way.
After getting steamrolled in the first-set tiebreaker, the American generated two break chances early in the second and even put his opponent in a 0-40 hole with Federer serving at 3-4. But Federer managed to hold and eventually broke Kudla at 5-5 before finishing it off one game later.
“I’m very happy,” the world No. 1 noted. “Like yesterday against Ebden, against Kudla also it was similar. It was tough. I couldn’t quite keep the break going that I got in the first game. I gotta do better there. I can’t be getting [broken] like this. I played a great tiebreaker; went up 6-0 very quickly. (In the) second set I had to battle; I was down 0-40 in one game.
“Honestly I am expecting ‘breakers at the moment. The good things is I have a tremendous record here in tiebreakers. I’m very confident when I go into the tiebreaker…. Credit to [Kudla] to get back and then serve well for most of the match, and me too. We didn’t see any more breaks until basically the very end in the second to last game.”
Highlights:
Next up for Federer in Sunday’s championship match is Borna Coric, who advanced when he got a first-set retirement from Roberto Bautista Agut. The Spaniard suffered a nasty fall and called it quits while leading 3-2 on serve.
Thus continues a perfect run through the Halle draw for Coric, who did not surrender a single set in victories over Alexander Zverev, Nikoloz Basilashvili, and Andreas Seppi. The Croat is 0-2 lifetime against Federer, with losses at the 2015 Dubai tournament (6-2, 6-1) and earlier this season at the Indian Wells Masters (5-7, 6-4, 6-4).
Will Federer pick up the pace from his previous Halle matches for a third career encounter against Coric?
“(I’m) playing a lot of matches right now, so I think I’m missing practice a little bit,” the Swiss commented. “But it’s okay. It’s the first time I’m in back-to-back grass-court tournament finals I’m actually very happy. I’m just hoping to play another good match tomorrow. The finals are always where I want to play my best and this is where I’m going to judge my performance at the very end. Then I got time to rest next week and practice, as well, and get really ready for Wimbledon.”
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